Witches' Hymn Book: Exit Song

High time we had another hymn to accompany the acts of the witch cult. Deciding whether to leave is relatively easy for the witch and the question 'Is this giving me power or taking it away?' will provide the answer. I would like to dedicate this to my last workplace, which is bearing a resemblance to this video

The University Hospital Compassion Statue

To hospital again for a routine follow up to ensure that I will be able to annoy people for many years to come. It is usually surrounded by hospital staff smoking or children laughing at the willy, but unusually I managed to get a picture of the Compassion statue today.
It was moved to the Queen Elizabeth site after Selly Oak hospital closed:

A Source distinctive bronze sculpture based on the Good Samaritan parable has found a permanent new home at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) after more than half a century.

The Compassion statue, which depicts one man aiding another, had been a familiar feature for patients, staff and visitors to Selly Oak Hospital since it was erected outside the main outpatients department in 1963.

Following the transfer of outpatient services to the new QEHB in Edgbaston, the sculpture was carefully loaded by crane onto a truck in April before being taken away for restoration.

The statue was created by sculptor Uli Nimptsch after a commission in 1961 by The Charles Henry Foyle Trust, who donated it to Selly Oak Hospital. The Foyle Trust provided benches for the public and maintained the statue until the hospital’s clinical services moved in 2010. They subsequently made a donation for the cost of relocating the statue to its new location.

It has now been restored and given a new home alongside the pedestrian walkway between QEHB and University rail station.

Graham Hackett, Estates and Design Manager at University Hospitals Birmingham, which runs QEHB, said: “The Compassion statue holds a lot of affection for people who worked at Selly Oak, visitors and the wider community, so we have effectively moved a large slice of Selly Oak to the new hospital site.”

The sculpture was taken to a firm of conservation specialists to be restored.

Mr Hackett added: “There were quite a number of chips which needed repairing, and the statue was also set on bronze dowels set into the plinth which had cracked and needed fixing. But the main restoration work consisted of cleaning and waxing.”

As well as planning permission, UHB also needed to obtain consent from English Heritage to relocate the sculpture as the site is located within the Metchley Roman fort site, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. 

Incidentally the Roman Fort connection makes this area of the city one of the most haunted, in the Hound's humble opinion. Incidentally I didn't think I had heard of Kirkup, the poet quoted on the plinth, but on further examination he gets my approbation for iconoclastic action:

In June 1976, Gay News published his poem The Love that Dares to Speak Its Name, in which a Roman centurion expresses the sexual fantasies the body of Christ provokes in him and imagines a history of Christ's homosexual encounters. Mary Whitehouse sued the newspaper for blasphemous libel. Gay News was defended by John Mortimer and both Bernard Levin and Margaret Drabble gave evidence on its behalf, but the jury decided in favour of Whitehouse. The newspaper and its editor, Denis Lemon (of whom Kirkup was later to write an obituary), were fined, and Lemon was given a nine-month suspended sentence. Source

True to form  while I am sitting on a bench writing this post the nearby busker has started playing one of my tunes. Just call me Godfather.

The Hanged Man

In my researches into the Golden Dawn tarot I have reached the Hanged Man and they have made some fascinating revelations. In the deck I have there is the man hanged upside down but there is also another figure, a giant with a rainbow at his feet. The rainbow represents the pact between G*d and man, and the whole card, the descent of the divine into matter. Since there are two figures, whichever way up the card is, either the divine or the human is exalted. Naturally as a witch I don't myself have a dog in this fight, but I have even read somewhere that the 'proper' position for the card is sideways.

A Spectacular Waste of Money

I did forecast on here some time ago that the Central Library would be missed, and while not complete the it is obvious that I was right. Because obviously this

... which is blandness personified, is not an improvement on this

.. Which at least has the advantage of being individual and a landmark. Fools.

How I am Spending my Holiday and Update on Golden Dawn Tarot

I now have a start date for my new job of the 21st, and have settled into a routine for my Payment in Lieu of Notice time, namely, get up, have some breakfast, have a wank, study some tarot cards and maybe have an outing if I feel like it, then watch some TV in the evening. I have always been able to amuse myself and frankly rather look forward to being retired so that my life could be like that every day.
My studies into the Golden Dawn tarot are both creating new problems for me and enlightening some matters. The problem is of course that I can't really claim to understand Kabbalah, and particularly not as related to tarot. For example, I am only just beginning to get why the minor arcana are placed on the sephiroth and the major arcana on the pathways between them. This fact is beginning to make more sense as I study these cards. On the other hand, when I think of the energy of The Fool, I don't think he should be on the tree at all: since he is the time before the first glimmering of an idea, I feel he should be somewhere above it. But hey ho, we press on.
One of the things this study is doing for me is enlightening the exasperating hints Waite keeps dropping that there are 'inner' secrets to the tarot keys, which he does not reveal and are not always visible in his cards (although some of them are well known and discernible by meditation). This study is beginning to reveal some of them, for example:
The Golden Dawn Fool shows a child holding a wolf, and represents worldly wisdom kept in check by perfect innocence.
The Magician represents the Fool in the act of experience, but things are not yet manifest. He has all powers at his fingertips.
The High Priestess carries us across the Abyss on the Tree of Life, and is the vessel of creation. In Golden Dawn terms she can represent the church rather than the Order.
The Empress represents things taking form, and we must be born of her womb to access the higher levels of the Tree. Here I have the slight difficulty that movement on the Tree is both upwards and downwards, although perhaps this says more about me than anything else.
The Emperor wears a fleece over his armour (why did I never notice this) and represents the force of Mars having put down the sword and taken up the wand.
The Hierophant's lesson is not intellectual, it has to be felt and experienced, which was the role of the Hierophant in the Golden Dawn. He links the Ethical Triad of the tree with the Supernal triad, Higher self with Spiritual self. The nails on the card bring together the fragments of the universe.
The Golden Dawn Lovers represents Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the Dragon of fear and the waters of stagnation. The 'inner' meaning is not sexual or the choice depicted in other decks, but is the love of the divine twins of Gemini for each other, the union of male and female within the initiate, conscious and subconscious.The Chariot is the first key to pass the Abyss to the lower Sephiroth, and represents will connecting and reconciling opposing forces.
Fortitude represents the soul controlling the passions. The woman is the same woman in the Universe card. The red line at the top of the card represents the abyss.
The Hermit represents communication with the Higher Self and help from above. I have a friend who refers to it as the wanker card, which of course does not represent the 'inner' meaning!
And so on...

I am watching some Doctor Who. I have a preference for the Second Doctor. Actually, let's be frank here, I have a raging crush on his companion Ben, who enters the series like a walking gay fantasy dressed as a sailor. Have a jelly baby.